1. Field of the Invention
Maritime board game with ship/marker playing pieces each carrying plural removable cargo units, each such ship/marker being movable along closed circuit cruise route positions circumferentially arranged on a game board and bearing event designations, certain of which positions involve "hits" scored by removal of a cargo unit from the ship/marker, unless the "hit" is avoided by the player who owns that ship/marker having previously drawn a "hit" avoidance card when the ship/marker was stopped on one of certain other cruise course positions.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Naval board games are known involving ship/markers or the like moving from a home port and remaining in play in spite of more than a single "hit" from an opponent, such as in Johnson-Jervis U.S. Pat. No. 972,382. However, in the Johnson-Jervis game, "hits" are recorded by adding a ring to the marker and the play of the game includes the concept of a vessel withdrawing from engagement and returning to home port for repairs. Moreover, the Johnson-Jervis game differs from that of the present invention in that in it the movement of markers is not restricted to the perimeter of the board, i.e. to a single, closed circuit cruise route, and, the number of spaces which each marker moves is predetermined by the type of marker it is, and each player has different types of markers. Wooden U.S. Pat. No. 4,226,419 discloses a strategy game involving movement of markers on a chess type board, with the moves allowed each marker predetermined by a permanently affixed vector pattern displayed on the marker, in combination with pins which are settable into the marker to alter the permanent vector pattern in specific ways. Scoring against an opponent is by maneuvering one of the markers to align its vectors directly with the vectors of an opponent's marker, and pin placement in the marker is not a means of recording hits nor is movement of the Wooden markers restricted to a single closed circuit course path arranged circumferentially of the board. The Wooden game is designed for play by only two players and pieces are movable in multiple directions.
Whitmore U.S. Pat. No. 1,254,380, Edwards U.S. Pat. No. 1,315,483, Channer U.S. Pat. No. 2,277,301 and Paschal U.S. Pat. No. 2,414,165 are of general interest in that they relate to naval or warfare board games. However, none of these games utilizes markers with removable pins for "hit" scoring purposes and all include boards designed so that the markers can be moved over the entire board surfaces. It is also a characteristic of these games that game players may have more than one kind of marker, each of which functions in a distinctly different manner.